Macroalgae may mitigate ocean acidification effects on mussel calcification by increasing pH and its fluctuations

By M. Wahl, Sabrina Schneider Covachã, V. Saderne, C. Hiebenthal, Jens D. Müller, C. Pansch, Y. Sawall. 2018

133 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Ocean acidification (OA) is generally assumed to negatively impact calcification rates of marine organisms. At a local scale however, biological activity of macrophytes may generate pH fluctuations with rates of change that are orders of magnitude larger than the long‐term trend predicted for the open ocean. These fluctuations may in turn impact benthic calcifiers in the vicinity. Combining laboratory, mesocosm and field studies, such interactions between OA, the brown alga Fucus vesiculosus, the sea grass Zostera marina and the blue mussel Mytilus edulis were investigated at spatial scales from decimetres to 100s of meters in the western Baltic. Macrophytes increased the overall mean pH of the habitat by up to 0.3 units relative to macrophyte‐free, but otherwise similar, habitats and imposed diurnal pH fluctuations with amplitudes ranging from 0.3 to more than 1 pH unit. These amplitudes and their impact on mussel calcification tended to increase with increasing macrophyte biomass to bulk water ratio. At the laboratory and mesocosm scales, biogenic pH fluctuations allowed mussels to maintain calcification even under acidified conditions by shifting most of their calcification activity into the daytime when biogenic fluctuations caused by macrophyte activity offered temporal refuge from OA stress. In natural habitats with a low biomass to water body ratio, the impact of biogenic pH fluctuations on mean calcification rates of M. edulis was less pronounced. Thus, in dense algae or seagrass habitats, macrophytes may mitigate OA impact on mussel calcification by raising mean pH and providing temporal refuge from acidification stress.

Subfields: Global and Planetary Change, Oceanography

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/943d54820d6a8b808057d5d39c516f24a408a763

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Global and Planetary Change

1. D. Knowler
2. Thorsten B. H. Reusch
3. Carlos M. Duarte
4. Joao Marques
5. T. Chopin
6. M. Roleda

In Oceanography

1. E. Serrão
2. Carlos M. Duarte
3. Thorsten B. H. Reusch
4. Joao Marques
5. G. Pearson
6. T. Chopin
7. M. Roleda
8. Gabriele Procaccini

Citations in the corpus

• Climate Change Impacts on Seagrass Meadows and Macroalgal Forests: An Integrative Perspective on Acclimation and Adaptation Potential (2018, background): “However, the effect is unlikely to be big since the predicted long-term rise in CO2 falls several orders of magnitude below current CO2 and pH fluctuations within seagrass beds and kelp forests (Saderne et al., 2013; Wahl et al., 2017).”
• Climate change and aquaculture: considering adaptation potential (2019, background): “…producer of oxygen, sequester carbon dioxide, and increase pH (De Silva & Soto 2009, Han et al. 2013, Clements & Chopin 2017, Duarte et al. 2017, Wahl et al. 2018), although effectiveness will depend upon many factors such as species, culture system, production scale, nutrient load, water flow,…”